Middle-aged flash packers

Executive summary (Charlie, please let me know when I can stop doing this.): As professional sightseers we are rubbish;Almaty is a young, cool city; not being able to read or write the lingo means we get surprising food; Kazakhstan is the world’s largest manufacturer of shoe horns. (Probably)

In the grand scheme of things, today should go down as a bit of a failure on the sightseeing front.

The market was closed, there was nothing on at the opera house so we couldn’t buy tickets ( apparently it’s fantastic and very cheap to see a production, I really wanted to go), the botanical gardens are being dug up and we didn’t make it to the Kok-Tobe hill tower.

However, there’s always joy to be had in a good old potter around a city and that’s exactly what we did.

The metro is relatively new (8 years old) and it knocks the socks off London’s ageing tube. It’s wide and spacious and CLEAN. Each stop has a theme, the Silk Road stop is particularly good. It costs less than 20p to use it, wherever you go. We walked most places but things are quite spread out and the traffic is awful so we were glad to be able to use it. Also young people give up their seats for me which is kind but slightly depressing.

We did manage to see the stunning Zenkov cathedral. The bells were ringing when we got there and there was a bride outside having her photo taken. Lovely. The cathedral is made entirely of wood, no nails. It withstood a catastrophic earthquake when most other buildings were razed to the ground.

We availed ourselves of coffee and cake in the cafe near by. Our crapness at Russian means although we can order coffee, anything else means we are at the mercy of whatever the waiter/waitress can make us understand. This time it was cheesecake which Steve didn’t particularly want but on the basis of it was that or nothing he ordered it. It turned out to be a bit like welsh cakes without sultanas but with tiny bits of cheese instead. We dipped them in sour cream and custard. Actually delicious.

Lunch was less of a mystery as the menu was in English but we were given plums as a starter and a small pot of jam to take home at the end. Strange but nice.

Both Steve and I have noticed how Almaty has its own unique feel. It isn’t trying to be something else. That might sound a strange thing to say but we’ve been to cities that have embraced, for example, American culture and it comes across as fake and soulless.

Observation number 2: It’s a young city. I don’t know where the old people are but they’re not wandering around town. Instead it’s young people on motorised scooters, young people looking sharp in their work attire/school uniforms and young people smooching. Yes they are snogging all over the place.

Observation 3: they are very into technology. No surprised looks here when Steve uses his Apple Watch to pay, everyone does it.

Observation number 4: no homeless people or beggars.

Observation number 5: Kazakhstanis love shoe horns.

We noticed this on our Air Astana flight as our amenity packs included a shoe horn. Not an essential in my book but then we noticed in the mosque there were shoe horns galore for all the folk putting their shoes back on. Then, lo and behold, the first thing we see when we walk into our apartment is a shoe horn! Obviously Khazakstanis manufacture ridiculously tight shoes or they can’t be bothered to unlace their shoes. Have they heard of Velcro? Hmm…I feel a business opportunity coming on. Still wouldn’t want to put all those shoe horn makers out of business.